For an administration that was supposed to eliminate
"foreign US entanglements" and bring America's troops home, the offshore
combat deaths sure are piling up fast.

A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed on Thursday while fighting an al
Qaeda-affiliated militant group in Somalia, the Pentagon said on
Friday, marking the first U.S. combat death in the country since 1993
and the fourth U.S. service member to be killed within the past week
with the casualties spread out over three warzones. Two other service
members were wounded in a firefight with al-Shabaab militants near the
capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, military officials said.

The last time a US soldier died in Somalia was in 1993, when
18 U.S. service members were killed and dragged in the streets in what became known as the battle
of Mogadishu, later memorialized in the film âBlack Hawk Down.â

The mission was targeting a compound of al Shabaab militants
that âhas been associated with some attacks on facilities that we use
and that our Somali partners use nearby.â

âU.S. forces were conducting an advise and assist mission
alongside members of the Somali National Army,â according to a statement
from the U.S. Africa Command, which oversees American personnel on the
continent. Thursdayâs firefight took place near Barli, Somalia, 40 miles
west of Mogadishu. âThe entire team was able to return fire and
suppress the militants."

As the WSJ writes,
in late March, a change in policy by President Donald Trump allowed the
military to step up its fight against al-Shabaab, declaring Somalia an
area of active hostilities. Trump has given military commanders more
leewayworld-wide in fights against Islamic State and other militant
organizations.

Al-Shabaab has been ramping up small-scale attacks using
mostly improvised explosive devices in recent months, especially since
February when the country elected its new president. President Mohamed
Abdullahi Mohamed, known widely by his nickname âFarmajo,â declared war
on al-Shabaab in April, in a symbolic gesture diplomats interpreted as a
relaunch of efforts to defeat the group.

But without a fully developed and trained national army,
the task continues to prove elusive. The Somali National Army is an
often haphazard group that lacks consistent training and is badly, if at
all, paid. The U.S. and other donors have long tried to train parts of
the army, and the U.K. and the European Union run stipend projects that
top-up army salaries provided the Somali state pays the core salary.

In recent weeks al-Shabaab has been trying to promote a
more charitable image on its social-media channels. A looming famine
affecting millions in Somalia is drawing the attention of humanitarian
organizations ramping up efforts to feed people across the country. In
al-Shabaab held areas, the group claims it is running food-assistance
programs while blocking access to Western humanitarian organizations
like the United Nations food agency, the World Food Program.

Meanwhile, in a statement on the casualty, U.S. Africa
Command said it continues âto support our Somali and regional partners
to systematically dismantle this al Qaeda affiliate, and help them to
achieve stability and security throughout the region as part of the
global counterterrorism effort.â

As noted earlier, this was the fourth U.S. service member to
be killed within the past week; a soldier died on Saturday following an
explosion outside of Mosul in northern Iraq, and two Army Rangers were
killed early last Friday morning during a raid on ISIS militants in
Afghanistan.